​So, this one was a big “No” from me. I started to take a look at an upcoming release from Bear & Company called The Tablets of Light: The Teachings of Thoth on Unity Consciousness (2017), which appears under the byline of Danielle Rama Hoffman and the copyright of Danielle Lynn Hoffman, who are presumably the same person. I did not make it very far. Mostly I wanted to give up when the acknowledgements thanked the Egyptian god Thoth, to whom the book is pompously dedicated, and to “the Council of Light, Isis, Sanat Kumara, Venus Beings of Light, and all the Light Beings I have the blessing of multidimensionally communicating with.” But I did give it a go into the first chapter. It was a mistake. I had expected at least a passing familiarity with Egyptian, Greek, and Hermetic sources; I received rambling New Age mumbo-jumbo.

​I mentioned that the book is copyrighted to Danielle Rama Hoffman. This makes for an interestingly self-refuting volume, since the book professes to be a faithful transcription of extemporaneous remarks delivered by the god Thoth to Hoffman while communicating psychically across dimensions. As extemporaneous remarks, they would be beyond the protection of copyright. (The law is complex; I am simplifying here for effect.) So, in order to assert copyright, it would seem like one of the following things must be true: (a) Thoth prepared these remarks ahead of time as a written text whose copyright he assigned to Danielle Hoffman or (b) the text’s claims are untrue and the true author is Danielle Hoffman, who therefore can assert copyright. There are other, even less logical possibilities, but I’m pulling for (a), mostly because I’d love to see the legal documents assigning Hoffman the copyright to an Egyptian god’s trans-dimensional texts.

If I were a jackass, I’d publish “Thoth’s” words and dare her to prove she legally owns them, thus demonstrating the threadbare revelation of a fictitious deity. But I am not that much of raconteur. Suffice it to acknowledge that she would be unlikely to produce legal evidence of Thoth.

At some level, Hoffman must recognize this since she has a special preface explaining that Thoth is both an incorporeal entity beyond all human understanding and also her “business partner.” Try claiming that deduction on your taxes. This is in contradistinction to her other special spirit friends, Metatron, Mary Magdalene, Isis, etc., who are simply bosom buddies but not creative partners. Technically, Hoffman alleges that as a “scribe” she “co-creates” text with Thoth, and thus owns it, though this would still give him a share of the copyright, barring a legal agreement otherwise. When a book includes text written by a person other than the author, the publisher typically requires a legal document granting permission to use that text. I’m guessing that Bear & Company doesn’t have one on file for Thoth, supposed and named author of the preface and “co-creator” of the book itself, which professes to be in his words. It’s a pretty clear admission that the supposed entity isn’t real, or at least not in any sense recognized by the law.

Thoth, for his part, claims in the preface to be the “keeper of the Akashic Record.” Between that reference and Hoffman’s discussion of Venus Beings of Light, it’s pretty clear that her New Age claptrap is recycled from Theosophy. And for being “the god of infinite knowledge,” Thoth is pretty vague and rather light on specifics. One might thing an omniscient being might be able to give us a little more detail rather than setting up what he admits to be ambiguous puzzles that simply reflect the reader’s feelings. But what would you expect from a text that Hoffman says is “simultaneously old, ancient, forgotten, and new, innovative, and remembered”? What would you say if I told you that the Tablets of Light were supposedly “reborn” into the world on February 16, 1970, “the same day that our beloved Divine scribe and transmitter of these words, Danielle Rama Hoffman, was born”? Frankly, I don’t trust any “ancient” text that refers to DNA as DNA. Thoth must keep up on the latest science, but nothing more. He is the god of infinite wisdom, but does not care to share anything more than what can be found by Google.

I guess it’s for the best, since Hoffman lives in southern France where she runs “Thoth’s Magic Academy,” an ersatz school for wannabe wizards ... sorry, seekers of wisdom​ ... that charges $3,300 in tuition for a year of YouTube-style videos (some are actually on YouTube) and 12 conference calls by phone, and “Scribe It!”, a program for forming your own mystic bonding experience with a supernatural entity who will dictate books to you.

​I am clearly in the wrong business. I didn’t know people will pay so much for so little. The videos simply feature Hoffman standing against a blank wall, with flat lighting, vamping for time with what seem very much like extemporaneous stream-of-consciousness remarks. You’d think the god of infinite knowledge could have transmitted to Hoffman a few lessons on how to improve her videos’ production values.

The process that the 'scribe' claims to have used to write this book reminds me of the way that Nancy Leider (of Planet X fame) used to claim how she communicated with Aliens.

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Patrick

6/4/2018 11:17:56 pm

Wow, I think you missed the whole point of that book. And I have no idea why you go on and on sbout copyright and legalities.
You either accept channeling or not.
As for the material itself, I think it's beautiful.
Maybe Bim as cynical as you. Nir did I expect a bunch of old references to material already in existence. What eoulf be the point?

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Only Me

1/13/2017 12:37:06 pm

I bet Erich von Däniken is pissed. He could have released "Copyright of the Gods" long before Hoffman.

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An Over-Educated Grunt

1/13/2017 01:23:43 pm

I would love to watch the copyright battle with Thoth unfold personally.

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Kal

1/13/2017 01:57:51 pm

I thought at first this was going to be about the blind sage Toth, girl in Avatar the cartoon, the Airbender girl who can bend Earth into things, but alas it was not.

It seems to be a retake on the "Seth books" of the 1970s. Very new age stuff. My Mom had a few of them. with the same type of spin, 'new age guru gets enlightenment via trans dimensional spirit walk with a god' stuff. In this case, a mistranslation of Set, as the Jewish Seth, one of Noah's sons.

Eric VD would have liked this.

Funny how these folks claim they're enlightened and for a fee you can buy some of that snake oil claptrap. You;'ll want more when it doesn't work, so you will buy her next book.

I also sense a little Sylvia Browne (a west coast fake psychic that has since passed, and didn't see it coming) and Nirvana speak in this idea.

At least it's so obscure there's no way to prove she didn't talk to a space god from another dimension. Ha. She might as well claim the octopus she saw once is an aembodiment of Chlathula.

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DaveR

1/13/2017 03:25:57 pm

There's also Judy Zebra Knight, or just JZ Knight, although she was born Judith Darlene Hampton, who claims to channel the great spirit Ramtha. She claims he taught her about physics, mathematics, astronomy and more mystical things that she will impart to you, for a price. I think she's worth millions of dollars from people paying to sit and speak with Ramtha while he channels himself through her body.

Although I think it's fairly easy to dupe people, I honestly wonder how these people live with themselves knowing they're simply conning people out of hard earned money so they don't have to find a real job.

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Bob Jase

1/13/2017 03:27:42 pm

I've had a few too many concussions (really, memory problems since that big one in '97) yet even I can't believe the crap that some people generate.

I've half a mind (see concussions above) to write a book by 'channelling' Hermes and disagreeing with everything Thoth 'wrote'.

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DaveR

1/13/2017 03:51:27 pm

I channeled Thor one summer, but all I wanted to do was hit things with a hammer. Although it was fun for awhile, when I smashed my thumb it became less fun, and then I threw my hammer into the woods and couldn't locate it, which pissed off Thor and I haven't been in contact since. Loki comes around, but that's a whole other issue.

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Clete

1/13/2017 07:20:56 pm

You would think that Thor, being an all seeing God, would be able to locate a hammer that you threw into the woods or at least send you a bill for a replacement.

Residents Fan

1/13/2017 03:49:51 pm

"I am clearly in the wrong business. I didn’t know people will pay so much for so little."

This reminds me of an anecdote told by the fantasy writer John Grant AKA Paul Barnett. In the 1980s, Grant wrote a satire on New Age beliefs called "Sex Secrets of Ancient Atlantis". Grant was horrified to receive a letter which not only took SSoAA seriously, but offered him a large sum of money for further information.

When the Assyrian God of Bullshit hears about this....
Well it won't be pretty

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SDO

1/13/2017 10:11:04 pm

Jason, I signed up for the mystical training and Toth conformed that he gave copyright permission so it's all good :-)

A few more "followers" and maybe she can give Scientology a battle for believers.

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Americanegro

1/14/2017 10:48:36 pm

Jason, I think you're wrong on copyright of this sort of material. The book is essentially a translation, and translations even of books or conversations which are not real can most certainly be copyrighted.

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Jason

1/15/2017 01:52:42 pm

This subject is more intetesting! http://christianchat.com/blogs/ixapollyonxi/10451-gift-discernment.html

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nomuse

1/16/2017 04:43:18 am

Thoth needs to get in touch with his buddy Imhotep, the demi-god of getting your paperwork right. Imagine if he had applied for trademark instead!

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SDO

1/17/2017 10:43:11 pm

He did, but as you know ancient names are almost always abbreviated. In this case he used an incarnation of his name, Imhotep, which become simply IHop.

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Alene

1/26/2017 12:27:03 am

She now switched everything to be "divine transmissions" because she doesn't like or agrees with the term "channelling".
She now charges $8,900 for a trip to France to connect with Thoth and teach people how to write wiggly stuff.
And she charges $12,000 for a "soul business" type program!
All I see is a group of white middle aged middle class women (and maybe 1-2 men?) paying for this stuff.
And now she's offering a " certification on how to make channelled squiggly drawings and play tarot card, and show others! That's $8900 more and you have to have taken the other 8k program in France beforehand!
Wow.
I need a piece of this Pie! I mean if you crunch numbers, she's making over 150-200k a year alone with these programs!
I want to meet Thoth.

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Sally

6/13/2017 09:07:11 pm

Actually there is a new book by Thoth, The Emerald Tablets for 2012 and Beyond.

http://www.ashalyn.com/emerald-tablets/

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I'm an author and editor who has published on a range of topics, including archaeology, science, and horror fiction. There's more about me in the About Jason tab.